It's unclear from the article if that's representative of either 1) Total time spent formatting or 2) The marginal increase in time spent formatting above what

It's unclear from the article if that's representative of either 1) Total time spent formatting or 2) The marginal increase in time spent formatting above what it would take to follow some other common format. #2 seems less likely, since, well, there isn't really a common format, as the article points out, so there's no default that researchers would use as a baseline. That leaves #1. But a paper has to be formatted somehow, and that's always going to take time. So the $230M cost the article cites is going to be at least a little smaller when you take out the time it takes to write up anything at all using a consistent style and format, whether it's your own or something imposed on you. And I can tell you based on my own profession & day to day work, format & presentation is extremely important in making it easier for your audience to consume information, and this is especially true with complex or novel information. Undoubtedly the industry can and should do better. There should be common standards. It would smooth readability and comprehension. But it's not going to completely eliminate the rough $/hour equivalent this article is citing. Also consider that different fields will be conveying different types of information, or have audiences with different skillsets, so there's not a one-size-fits-all approach here. Style & formatting guidelines, even made as common as possible, will still by necessity be different in different disciplines.